When Andrea Bishop, executive director of the Betty and Bobby Allison Ozarks Counseling Center, got a call recently from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, she thought the counseling center might be getting some kind of grant.
Instead, Bishop was told she has been named the 2022 Humanitarian Award recipient.
“I was shocked,” Bishop said. “It just came out of the blue.”
The Humanitarian Award was founded in 1990 by the late Springfield donor Jewell Thompson Schweitzer to honor individuals in the community who “excel at serving others in a humanitarian capacity,” a new release from Community Foundation of the Ozarks said.
Bishop has served as the Ozarks Counseling Center’s director since 2011.
“The ability to help people through mental health treatment — for me, it doesn’t get any more meaningful than that,” Bishop said. “To be able to help people make changes in their lives and improve their lives and getting to do that every day is really exciting. It’s professionally gratifying to watch people blossom.”
Leading the OCC is ‘best job in the world'
Bishop added that the Ozarks Counseling Center’s staff and board members are “really wonderful people.”
“My job is to give the staff what they need to excel,” she said. “And the board is a partner in that endeavor. Really, I have the best job in the world.”
Her nominators, Harwood Ferguson and Richard Schnake, cited her “willingness to lead the center with strong fiscal stewardship and working for a lesser salary than she would receive in the private sector in order to serve as many clients as possible,” the release said.
Bishop opened her own consulting business and teaches graduate psychology classes at Missouri State University to supplement her work at the counseling center.
During her tenure, she secured the historic Day House in downtown Springfield so the counseling center would no longer have to pay rent, the release said. She did this by securing state tax credits, which were used by the late Bobby Allison to pay the mortgage.
“She also made it possible for the OCC to offer evening appointments, discreet counseling appointments and play therapy for children, support for children of divorcing parents and for boys from abusive homes in hopes of breaking abusive patterns,” the release said.
Board member praises Bishop's dedication
In his nomination letter, Schnake, an OCC board member and partner at Neale & Newman law firm, wrote:
“For Andrea — just as for us lawyers and for physicians and ministers and others whose professions touch people at difficult times in their lives — those whom she helps are on her mind when she dresses, and eats, and drives, and lies awake at night. To borrow words from Theodore Roosevelt, Andrea is truly ‘in the arena.'”
Bishop will receive a $5,000 cash award, which has traditionally been donated to one or more charities of the winner's choice, the release said.
The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce organizes a committee to review nominations for and select the annual recipient.
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks will present the Humanitarian Award at the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Ozark Region Chapter’s National Philanthropy Day celebration. This event begins at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 15 at the White River Conference Center, 600 W. Sunshine St.
This event honors a range of individuals and organizations involved in philanthropy, the release said. For tickets, visit cfozarks.org/humanitarian.
